Fremont police investigate fatal officer-involved shooting

Katie Marzullo Image
ByKatie Marzullo KGO logo
Friday, January 16, 2015
Witnesses say man shot by Fremont police had large knife
People living near Harvey Community Park in Fremont say they saw a man with a knife advancing towards a kid before officers shot the suspect.

FREMONT, Calif. (KGO) -- Friday afternoon police opened fire, killing a man they say was carrying a large knife near a neighborhood park. Witnesses described some terrifying moments leading up to the shooting.

It all started near Lake Arrowhead Avenue and Alvarado Boulevard and it ended at Harvey Community Park.

The coroner took the body and left the scene around 9 p.m. Police have not yet released the identity of the man who was shot and killed Friday. Fremont investigators are still trying to piece together exactly what led up to the use of deadly force.

"I looked at his face and I thought, he looks kind of... scary," Fremont resident Joanne Allison said.

Allison lives near Harvey Community Park in Fremont. She thinks she saw the man police killed and witnessed him fighting with another man before the shooting. It was around 2 p.m.

"He kept saying, 'Get away from me. Get away from me,' and he was backing up and the guy was going forward and the other guy was backing up," Allison said.

Allison says the man who was backing away was a young contractor, working on an empty house, and at one point, he called out to Allison. She recalled, "The guy said, 'Call the police. He's got a knife.'"

Allison did not see a knife and it was someone else who called police.

Fremont police spokeswoman Officer Geneva Bosques said the caller said, "there was a subject, walking down the street with a large knife and he had pulled it out and was advancing towards a young kid."

Three officers arrived and found the man at the park. One officer fired his Taser, another fired his gun and the man, described only as being in his 40s, was killed.

"We do know that the subject had the knife in his hand at the time of the encounter, but as to what exactly happened at that point is still to be determined through the investigation," Bosques said.

Police continue to interview witnesses and they ask anyone who might have surveillance video of the shooting to come forward.